I have developed and made strategic decisions about web sites for quite some time and here are the 10 most fundamental issues of web site development today that I can think of, maybe you have other just as savvy commandments as these, but please take a good look at my commandments.
| No | Commandment | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | If you do not have preferences choose a well renowned open source tool like Drupal (Developer friendly), Joomla (Designer friendly) or WordPress (Beginner friendly). | Money for license payment can be spent much better on consultancy and all these tools are just as mature as the more license oriented sites. |
| 2 | Choose tools where migration/export possibilities are excellent. Also make sure that the tool already supports mobile development or plans to support it in the very near future. | You do not want to be stuck with a tool that falls behind without an exit strategy - at the same time every web trend out there is over-shadowed by the main trend, which is mobile development either by HTML5 or apps. |
| 3 | Choose a solution where your organization will end up being in charge of contents management. | You do not want external consultancy bureaus dealing with day to day operations, which would cause large invoices, communication error possibilities and publishing delays. |
| 4 | Work with consultancy companies that do not bind you for several years in a contract. | If the consultancy company delivers the services the clients do not run away, if the client is not confident that they deliver that service to ensure client commitment, maybe the service is not good in the first place. |
| 5 | Define every aspect of the demand specification yourself from the start i.e. document workflow, security strategy, graphical layout drafting, visitor engagement tools, performance tracking strategy etc. |
It is so much easier to get a fair price from a consultant if they feel confident not to get any “surprises” during development. Rewriting base functionality can be costly and can delay publish date. If consultant companies have to do this you will end up with a very costly web site. |
| 6 | Get prices from several suppliers once the demand specification has been specified, do not necessarily go for the cheapest solution, but if the price difference is huge, confront the consultants that you feel comfortable with the problem. | Sometimes price differences are huge because the service level and delivery security is different; just make sure that there is a reasonable explanation. |
| 7 | Define your goals, define what makes you think visitors want to visit your site, define expected no of visitors and activity level in order to achieve your goals. |
A web page has a price like a machine in a production company. If it does not make financial sense to have an expensive web page with a lot of smart facilities, why invest in that web page.
Make sure that it is documented that the web page can carry its own financial burden – usually that also makes it easier to get money for the development. |
| 8 | Make sure visitor statistics can be tracked and create goals for your expected visitor figures. |
Make sure visitor statistics can be tracked and create goals for your expected visitor figures. If you track these goals daily, weekly or monthly – you will be able to monitor what type of content interest the visitors the most and act upon it. |
| 9 | Create a budget for contents, this budget should either be dedicated towards external bureaus that creates graphics, reports or other relevant material – but also try to estimate how many internal hours is needed to have up-to-date material. |
Building a great web site is one phase that usually takes from 1 day to a couple of months dependent on complexity.
Making sure the site material is relevant and up-to-date is just as important and many organizations tend to forget that the web site should mirror an ever changing world. |
| 10 | Do not let technical staff decide the design, take a look at your own organization from the perspective of internal people working there, partner, clients and any other potential web site visitor, and try to make a site that makes each of these user groups comfortable. | If you had a store in the pedestrian street, would you let a nerd decorate it? |
